Orono councilors adopt $8.8 million budget, consider Internet wire over Stillwater River

ORONO, Maine — The Town Council unanimously approved an $8.8 million budget Monday night during a sparsely attended meeting.

That’s a drop from the $9.35 million the town budgeted last year, but revenues also are projected to decrease by about $745,600. Orono will have to raise about $3.3 million for the municipal budget through taxes, an increase of $201,226, or 2.3 percent, over last year, according to Town Manager Sophie Wilson.

The town’s mill rate for fiscal year 2012-13 is projected to increase 49 cents per $1,000 of property valuation to $21.79. The county tax is expected to drop by 3 cents, but the school and municipal rate each would increase by 26 cents.

The council also voted to authorize the town to purchase $25,611 worth of audio and video equipment for the council chambers and the municipal building’s TV room. The funds will be drawn from three different town accounts.

After the council meeting, the community development committee discussed plans to string an Internet cable over the Stillwater River next to the Route 2 bridge.

GWI, a Biddeford-based telephone and Internet service provider, plans to bring a super-high-speed Gigabit Main Street Internet Network to Old Town and Orono. As part of that plan, it wants to string a fiber-optic wire across the Stillwater so more Orono neighborhoods can have access to the service.

That would involve replacing telephone poles on each side of the river with taller ones and running the cable, which is a little smaller than the diameter of a marker, over the water. The wire would hang 6 to 8 feet downstream of the bridge and above the street lamps on the bridge.

Some councilors said they were concerned the wire might create an eyesore and asked if there was a way of running it under the bridge.

There is a conduit passing under the bridge that houses wires and cables running from one end of the bridge to the other, but it’s already full, according to Orono Town Planner Evan Richert. Adding another conduit would prove very expensive, he said.

The council asked Richert to get a sample wire or ask the company to create a rendering of what the wire would look like.

The Maine Department of Transportation has the final say whether and how the cable crosses the river but has asked the Town Council for its comment and approval to move ahead with the work.